"Dear Sir/Madam. I am a Banker (Current Role- Customer Service Manager (asset servicing & operations). After around 6 years of working directly with people in diverse professional settings after MBA (Marketing & Human resource management), I am seeking to learn broader avenues in the area of ERP/SAP now. Much of my experience is in customer service management, Asset operations & selling investment solutions.the job description comprises of ensuring customer delight by rendering best service, effective grievance redressal & problem solving.I love servicing customers & it gives me immense pleasure when I see smile & satisfaction on their faces. For last 1 year, I have been making my mind to enter into SAP industry. Since I come from a typical orthodox middle class family with not much guidance, Here also, i have been dependent on friends' advice, internet information & word of mouth have had a word with few institutes like JKT academy, Ducat, CDAC, Sap Labs & Siemens. most of them suggested me CRM module which as per them suits me most.Since budget is a constraint, I have dropped siemens & jkt & finally made up my mind for CDAC (Noida, India, A ministry of IT approved society ). Is my decision right? Would seek all of you experienced people's advice over what should I do & how should I proceed further? Best Regards, Sumit Bajaj"

2. Persevere
- Every day enjoy the learning, relate concepts with business scenarios, ask questions (Why has SAP configured xyz in such a way? etc)
- Explain concepts to your class mates
- Every day do lots of practice in the test system. Try to remember the important fields, important tables and transaction codes
- Always be positive and believe in your decision
- No matter what, keep learning (throughout your career)

Now when you go to the institute talk with the teacher, ask him to explain some process and how it is implemented in SAP. How clear can he explain? Do you understand?
Then select the institue.

Note: I agree with Abdul, go for unauthorized institute but which has a ""good"" teacher.
Put time in searching the right teacher...in an institute, it is worth the time, effort.

I won't suggest you to go for any unauthorized institute. You need at least 3
years of work ex in SAP crm to get good package. Do thru Siemens or
gennovate, don't go for unfair means for job in SAP. It seems lucrative but
it industry looks more fancy it isn't so.

If your mind is already set for SAP and if the point of no return is already behind you and out of reach to reverse then choose whatever you want to materialize and put all energy in it. You will survive and reach the success that you deserve based on the level of your seriousness. It is not impossible to do so. The evidence is that ten of thousands of people are successful in the field that has to do with SAP.

If the scenario that is briefly described above is not the situation that you are currently in, reconsider your option! Changing your professional direction toward SAP will put you back immediately onto the square one. Not only that, but it will cost you years in time of hard work, a large amount of monetary means to invest in earning necessary knowledge and skill. On the top of these undesirable effects, you will dearly miss the success that you already have reached in your current position as you describe below.

Either way, the power of making a decision is mainly in your hand. Set your intelligence into the decision making process wisely and you will enjoy a successful outcome; otherwise you know at least in advance that the road is bumpy and thorny. And it does not have to be that way to you. And finally, do what a woman or man has to do!

If you enjoy interacting with customers (servicing them, solving their problems) and if you haven't worked on ""process oriented"" tasks (step1 leads to step 2 that could lead to step 3i and 3ii etc.). Then please think again about SAP (or ERP) as a new career.

In my opinion, in SAP, before you face a client (customer) to understand and solve their issues, requirements, there is going to be a long period of learning, practicing, building your experience - sitting in front of the system, reading the theory, answering problems in exercises and forums.

Go for SAP because you would enjoy discovering a structured system, do not go for SAP for benefits, gains (money, recognition etc).

Considering your have longs years of experience in Banking compared to the yet not started SAP career,
with degree in BE / MBA & 60% marks 10th onwards.
I Will provide with few facts (i have faced too during my certifn & job search) which might help you deciding your future course of action.

1. Certification is a must to get a job in SAP Consulting co.
2. Joining any institute (ATOS / NIIT / Genovate etc etc) makes no difference, as all promise you a sky & don't even reply or pick your call after 19th day of completion of training, when they have to provide placement assistance, this when one might feel disgusted in life!
3. After completion of certfn, you are still considered Fresher in ERP sector, how much ever your domain exp be, its not considered.
4. Per Quarter ; Number of company interested in hiring fresher = 2, Number of candidates applying in market for the same job = n.
5. Your last drawn CTC (in domain company) = What ever; If you by luck get hired in Leading SAP consulting co, your CTC would be = 2.5 lk to 3.5 lk
6. Average number of month before you might end up with a job (with above mentioned CTC ) = 4 to 5 months after completion of certification, (Plus 1.5 months time taken for Training & certification), = All totalling 6.5 months after quiting your last job.
7. Money you require = 3.5 lk for Certifn + Monthly expenses for next 6 to 7 months.
8. Self Motivation & family support require in these testing times = 100%

Above facts are practical hurdles, you have to choose to jump across if you are really convinced to enter SAP field & only in case have messed up with your current career path.

Though the rewards in SAP field are hidden to be seen in long term only (after 5 to 6 yrs), that too when you get to work for leading consulting firms from first break.

well Guys...thank you so much for the brain storming session...I found Viet Tran, Mr. Typewriter, Dilip Sadh & Pawan Desai's views really useful. To some extent, Mr. Vidya Dhar also enlightened me. Yet i could observe Mr Dhar & Abdul Razzak debating on their own understandings which somehow corrupted d purpose of me seeking your advice...Finally, what i could conclude is : Its only quality training, dedication, perseverance & hard work which can let the things click for me n i am well committed to that. C-DAC is a society of Ministry of Information technology, India & the creator of India's first super computer ""PARAM-800"". My decision is well thought out..There are regular cases from 9 AM to 6PM & the duration of the course is odd 35-40 days. I can also sense d faculty to be v. good enough after my discussion with MR. BALAkrishnan (Head-ERP division) CDAC. I have always been a front runner in academics with 80% + marks through out so wil
l try to stay effective & serious towards studies now also in same fashion..Few of my acquaintances have done SAP from siemens, jkt, sap labs & NIIT also, they couldn't get placed despite putting their best & struggling for odd 10-12 months time frame & even after they managed to get on the board, emoluments were not that lucrative. Few in my knowledge have done from CDAC , Ducat & other local institutes are just going fine after getting placed with giants in industry..ofcourse few of them had to wait for few months also.That's where i wish to say that Destiny combined with knowledge/dedication/hardwork will certainly do wonders...Institute, certification & job guarantees are secondary things & will be nullified down d line..I am fully confident, once entered into SAP environment, i will do wonders...Thank you so much..

You should first try and see if a reasonably good employer/consulting
firms exists to take you on board with the expectation that you will stay
with them for 3-4 years at the least. Try contacting all top20 employers
and write to them what you wrote here. I am sure if their human resources
and recruitment managers are indeed managers and value talent, they would
like to take someone like you on board.

Kindly be informed that Seimens training will help you to get Certificate
than quality of training.

I am not discouraging you but please join with any unauthorised center, for
one or two month course which will cost you hardly INR: 25000/- , to know
about SAP and CRM module.

If you are confident and interested to go further and feel that
certification is essential requirement for getting job, then join with
seimens or any other authorised center.

All centers will promise you placement assistance but don't trust even 50%.

Do not leave current job to learn SAP. Select nearest center other than
moving other states for training.

All are requested to revert if you feel my comments as non suitable.

Regards,

Abdul Razak VT

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Vidhya Dhar

May 11, 2012 05:02 AM

Hi Abdul

Most of your views are correct. Let us review them point by point.

SIEMENS HELPS IN OBTAINING A CERTIFICATE THAN IMPARTING QUALITY TRAINING

I presume that you are certified and perhaps after learning from a leading
institute such as Siemens. I hold a humble opinion that any skill requires
considerable period of exposure and training before you gain expertise in
it. The same applies to the maze of portions which you learn within 19 man
days. You must be aware how vast any module in SAP is and to cram it within
19 days is an herculean task. In those 19 days, you can get a basic view of
SAP concepts and nothing more.....This premise is focused upon and Siemens
(now ATOS ) imparts knowledge pretty much better than the local
institutes, I suppose. That is the best that can happen within 19 days.
Therefore, the focus of the course is inherently upon certification and not
on training. In my opinion, actual learning starts after you join an
organization get to know things in course of time........A certification (
usually after completing a course with an official education partner of SAP
AG ) happens to be one of the keys to obtain an SAP job ( at least in India
). Therefore, SAP HELPS IN OBTAINING A CERTIFICATE AND IMPARTS ADEQUATE
TRAINING WITHIN 19 DAYS TO HELP YOU GET A CERTIFICATION.

JOIN ANY UNAUTHORIZED ?! CENTER FOR A SHORT TERM COURSE WHICH WILL COST YOU
LESSER AND YET LET YOU KNOW ABOUT SAP AND THE MODULE YOU DESIRE TO LEARN.

If, in your opinion, even an official SAP Partner cannot impart quality
training......then what kind of recommendation is it that you offer about
joining a local institute credentials of which are not known? Perhaps ,
you are trying to say that you pay a paltry fee and get to know a basic
idea of SAP and a module. What if you get not just quality training there? Perhaps you could be trained badly as well and the possibility
cannot be ruled out.......If that happens, then you would be forcing a
candidate to learn things incorrectly and undergo a tougher process of
unlearning it later so that you learn things the right way ( perhaps after
the candidate joins a course later with an SAP recognized partner ). That
would be dreadful and you are making the entire learning process even more
complicated. Imagine the stress on the part of the faculty at Siemens
who would have to make you unlearn something and learn something else and
that too within 19 days! You are making the situation more difficult,
I suppose and comment about inadequacy of training quality at Siemens or
any other recognized center! I hope you agree with me.

I do concur with all your other views (viz. regarding leaving a current
job for the purpose of learning, not relying on placement assurance,
choosing a center based on proximity to your domicile etc).

I never intent to make the learning process difficult by advising to join
with any unauthorized center for obtaining the basic knowledge of SAP and
desired module.

The candidate in question is exclusively new to SAP industry and seeking
advice from SAP experts.

Even I am not the expert, would like to give few suggestion in this regard.

Assume that a candidate joined with Seimens and completed the course in 19
days spending Rs. 350,000/-and found difficult to get a job and decided to
continue his current job.

Another candidate completed the same course spending Rs.25,000/- and
found difficult to get a job and decided to continue his current job.

In market, Certification get value when candidate got experience. In our
case candidate is fresher in SAP.

Hence, I reiterate my advice to join with Local Institute to get basic
knowledge of SAP and CRM module.
Adding another 19 days for training is not great loss but saving 325,000/-
is important about undersigned.

I completed FICO from local institute but I had many friends in my class
who obtained SAP Certification among them no one has been placed.

Hello all
In training teacher is very important part of process.
Someone who is dedicated for teaching and care about students.
Many years back I took training from CDAC then called ERDCI and also was teacher also for few years.
I am not exactly sure about quality now but CDAC was / is a good learning place.
Please visit and verify them and talk to faculty.
Thank you
Dilip Sadh

''But I am only pointing out the other side of the coin namely, the paltry
sum of 25000 INR charged by a local institute also could go down the drain
if the quality of training is bad and the student learns wrong things. It
is quite possible. You could not only lose 25000 INR but could also ruin
your interview by learning things the wrong way. I do not rule out this
possibility.""

If local institutes are teaching wrong way then why do certified people
join for this training ?

As you were started your career with local institute as a trainer, might
know the way of leading trainees there.

Why certified people are telling that local institutes are more helpful
than authorized training centers after the course??

Later they prepare their profile with fake experience because experience is
must to get SAP job.

Experience plus certification will give you chance for interview.

Braveness to mention experience acquire from local institute by practicing
in lab, participating in live demo project, interacting with other module
consultants, etc.

In authorized center we are unable to access their system upon the
completion of training (after 19 days).

One point of attention ""Opportunities in SAP CRM market""
SD (Sales and Distribution) is an essential module and CRM is a ""nice to have"" module, for companies. Please check if there are high number of opportunities in SAP CRM in your market.

This check should to be done before starting your training.

Another point is how easy is it to learn CRM without any knowledge of SD. Please check the forum for discussions in this topic.

cdac noiada is a trusted institute for any of course. So don't be confused
about it. dy run mtech in erp form iit roorki. Your experience is sufficient, but you would
enter as a fresher. Starting is difficult, not impossible.

CDAC Noida not authorized training partner for SAP. Please do check once
before you enter.

Answered

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Vidhya Dhar

May 11, 2012 08:20 AM

Dear Abdul

Yes.....in a way, you are right. What is the point in spending 300000 INR
if even after your certification you do not get a job since you are
considered a fresher ? I can see your good intention in helping the poster
save a huge sum of money.

But I am only pointing out the other side of the coin namely, the paltry
sum of 25000 INR charged by a local institute also could go down the drain
if the quality of training is bad and the student learns wrong things. It
is quite possible. You could not only lose 25000 INR but could also ruin
your interview by learning things the wrong way. I do not rule out this
possibility.

I do speak this out of personal experience since I began my SAP career as
a faculty in a local institute before moving over as faculty at leading
institutes such as Siemens , ATOS, NIIT , Source One etc. It is also quite
likely that the infra-structure at the local institute and the expertise
of the faculty at the local institute could , perhaps, be inferior. Of
course, there are exceptions to this;but I go by the general conditions
prevailing in India.

Perhaps you are quite aware that a certificate alone is not sufficient for
a bright career in SAP. It is experience and expertise that matters more.
Unfortunately , in India.......freshers are generally frowned
upon.......no matter whether they are certified or not.

However, in an interview ( in India) , an employer might possibly give more
weightage to a certified fresher candidate emerging from an SAP recognized
institute than to a fresher from a non-descript institute. Is it not ?

I am never totally against your views of learning from a local institute. I
am only cautioning about the negative aspects associated with such learning.

May I bring your attention to the recent discussion (in which you were also
a participant) where Roy gave very good advice on the subject ?
Certification is a scrap of paper; knowledge and expertise is what matters,
really.

I understand that you are in the process of exploring the UAE market after
completing an SAP course.

I wish you success in your endeavors.

Regards

VidhyaDhar

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Vidhya Dhar

May 11, 2012 11:23 AM

Hi Abdul

Perhaps you did not read my post in full. I did not say that all institutes
teach wrongly and that no one joins it. All that I said was you are taking
a chance by joining a local institute and it is quite likely that you could
fall into wrong hands and the *possibility of learning things wrong cannot
be ruled out*.

I do not see any relevance of fake experience featuring into the
discussion; nor was there a mention about it. Faking experience ( a very
unhealthy practice , in my opinion ) or be forth right is an interviewee's
subjective preference and I do not see any relevance of this with regard to
the topic of choosing an institute ( be it an authorized center or
otherwise). I have nothing to offer nor am I willing to offer a view on
your generalized notion of "" certified person(s) recommending local
institute ""

There are many certified consultants who have been able to find themselves
a job after 19 days of practice and a day's certification. Yet , their
learning ( I refer to freshers ) actually commenced only after they got
themselves a job.

I suppose this thread has now started meandering purposelessly and the
direction in which it moves, I am afraid, may not add value to any one,
especially to the original poster. Therefore, I would like to yield and end
the debate here.

This is not a good time to be trying to get into SAP as a starter. The job market is bad, there are many more candidates than jobs and there are lots of experienced and well-qualified people sitting on the bench and trying to find work. So unless you have something very special to offer you are not going to get very far. If you have a job hang onto it because the recession has not finished with us yet.

Learning and Practicing Standard SAP System is not hard.You should
start doing case studies while learning like How to implement and map
business process in at least 5 ways by keeping entire end-to-end cycle in
mind and without having any impact, then only you would be able to get the
strength,confident and comfortable to discuss any kind of scenarios in
interviews and to impress people in industry to grab the available
opportunity.

First of all you should be prepared to shell out an exorbitant amount of
money and go through
very rigorous practice to acquire just about basic knowledge of the the
subject area/necessary SAP skills.
Then you should be prepared to wait to get a right break because not much
opening is there in the market
for freshers like you and myself.
For your information it took 1.5 years for me to get a break into the SAP
industry. I left my job and a course from an unauthorized
SAP training center and after that did certification in FI.
In this 1.5 years all I could manage was to get 3-4 interviews as a
fresher. Although I cracked IBM in the month of
March 2012, my offer letter just did not come. People would tell you about
ample opportunities in the market, which is true in
one sense - for experienced professionals with at least 3 years of relevant
SAP skills.
However as of now after all these struggle I managed to get a job (although
I would say I am not happy with my package
as a certified consultant) with a small vendor and currently working with a
leading manufacturing company.
I am writing this mail not to discourage you to venture into this sector
but to give you a taste of what I have gone through
to get a job in this area.
Please also keep in mind although you may be tempted to use fake
experiences to get interview calls you can be rest
assured that this trick works only for a very few people and in case you
are spotted faking experience in all
probability you would be banned from appearing for further interviews.
So rethink your decision and be very well aware of the struggle that lies
ahead.
Finally I would like to add that if you remain honest and dedicated success
would definitely find you.

First about myself - I have been an instructor at SAP-authorized institutes in India and Malaysia in the areas of SRM & MM, since 2008. This is in the interest of full disclosure and also to let you know where I am coming from.

General observations:
a) The initial break is always tough, just accept it.

b) If someone guarantees a job, I would not believe them. I don't think even MIT or Harvard (or whatever is your institute of choice) guarantee jobs when you join them.

However, please bear the following points in mind. These are based on my observations and the shared experience of training participants, over a number of years and across all geographical regions in India:

1) Those who have been working in the areas of Purchasing and/or (Inventory Management / Stores) and come for MM training & certification find it easier to get a break after the course than those who want to do certification, because they want to transit from what they are doing (and that is unrelated to MM or Business processes in general) to SAP. It might seem obvious but looking at the profile of certification aspirants who come to attend training, it is not. The reasons for this is the topic of another debate, so I am not going into those.

2) The right age group matters. If you have an experience of at least (5-7) or up to (12-15) years, it is easier to make the shift to SAP.
a) If you have less, you might find it difficult to get accepted as a Consultant by the company where SAP is being implemented. Hence, Consulting firms would also be reluctant to employ you.
b) If you have more experience, recruiters wonder whether you will be able to make the transition - accept lower compensation (than what you were getting in your old job) to start with, report to a Manager younger to you, relocate to where the project is, able to work as a team with others being much younger to you etc. Reporting to a Manager younger to oneself may not be a big deal in the West but In India, it still is. It is much less than what it used to be but is still is an issue that recruiters are worried about and perception matters. I am sharing with you what recruiters think. Even if you say you are willing to do whatever it takes, recruiters will take a lot of convincing on this one.

3) On a personal note, I made the transition to SAP after 17 years of experience but that was in 2001. It was a different world then and my transition experience is not relevant to you today. So, if you have 20+years of experience and are planning to make the transition and someone tells you that they, too, made the transition with 20+ years of experience (but 10 years back), please pause. What worked then is unlikely to work now. I'm only saying you will find it more difficult. The statistical chances of success are slimmer. Obviously, no one can predict how each individual case will turn out.

4) Consulting is not just about Content but also about Presentation. (There are cynics who will say it is only about presentation, but we will not go into that !!). Hence, take a hard look at yourself. Do you have the requisite soft skills:
a) Mixing easily with people from divergent backgrounds. These could be different cultural backgrounds. These would also be within the implementing Organization - you have to deal with people from CEO (or Steering Committee, where each member is a character by himself) to Accountant (if you are in FI) and from the CEO / Steering Committee to Stores Clerk (if you are in MM) and so on.
b) Communications skills not just written but oral - skills in persuading people. SAP implementation is more change management than anything else.
c) Networking - with peers and others. This means working comfortably people who are professional colleagues (but you have not known them before the start of the current project) not just your old friends.
d) Certification teaches you only Configuration skills. These are necessary but not sufficient.
e) The soft skills will decide your success or otherwise, first in securing an opportunity and then in whether you make a success of it.

There are a few other thoughts but the longer a note gets, the lesser the chances of it being read, so I must end here !!.

There are others who probably have more insights to share.

I wrote this, since it seems to be a recurring topic that worries aspirants who are looking at how to make an entry. Hope at least some if it helps some of you.

Your valuable feedback is definitely help the new entrants like me in this
filed. With due respect to all, giving a pessimistic feedback is very
easy (may be the most easy job in this world now) but giving feedback with
self example is valuable.

We those who are thinking for a career transition are mature enough to
know and understand the after effects of any career change, only
expectation from the industry leaders is to clarify the situation as per
their view point not to put further trouble in a open forum.

Excellent, Deepak. Very helpful for a lot of folks..thanks for taking the
time out and sharing..lots of priceless advice here..(btw - i have been in
the SAP field for over 10 years now..working for a fortune 500
organization..and have almost 20 years of experience (domain / functional +
SAP)..so, identify well with many of your comments / thoughts..

Its good for the aspirants that these comments are relatively general in nature and not just one person's experience.

Besides, its always good to have one's experience validated by peers.

Regards,
Deepak

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Roy Brookes

August 09, 2012 11:31 AM

Hi basuari,

So you think pessimistic comment is misplaced and we should all wear rose-tinted spectacles although we are in the middle of a recession that has the potential to be worse than anything seen to date. At least one country is facing bankruptcy and others could follow, a major world currency could easily go belly up, many companies, small and large, have failed but many, many more are teetering on the brink. India's output is down, so is China's and Germany's is starting to look shaky. And that is not to mention the housing crisis in the USA. People who bought houses there for USD 150,000 now owe their banks more than they paid for the house which is now valued at one third of what they paid or even less, so they cannot get out of the mess. In Spain this week unemployed workers sacked a supermarket to get food. In the same country whole villages of unsold houses stand empty. This is just the start. 2013 will be disastrous. The SAP market is not immune to all this and the last thing to do now is to leave a safe job for an uncertain future. I am talking about economic realities and these are being expressed by economists and experts around the World. I had a conversation this morning with a banker who is no more optimistic than I am. False optimism is what is misplaced in this climate and telling people they can move into SAP and make loads of money and build great careers is just the blind leading the blind. I am seriously thinking of leaving this forum because of such nonsense.

Dear,
Check Is CDAC authorised by SAP AG germany or not?
secondly their placement assistance, which is poor or zero.
I got training by CDAC noida 5 years before but no placement till date.
Getting knowledge is ok, but invest this musch think twice, otherwise go to
market and take training for rs. 5000/ of your module and practice and R&D
at your own. JKT/Siemens/Genovate etc etc also not provides job guarantee.

CDAC is not authorized with best of my knowledge. but no one can guarantee a job whether u r authorized or not.

Finding job is all together a different ball game.

One thing is very important for getting job, your knowledge of SAP Module. Which come one from some one who is a good teacher and willing to impart the knowledge. And having great teaching skills.

Thanks

dks

Dilip Sadh

Sent from my iPad 3

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Vidhya Dhar

August 12, 2012 01:58 AM

Hi

Most prospective students of SAP in India nurture an opinion that placement
/ assistance of placement would be guaranteed by an institute upon
completion of an SAP course. In reality, it is far from true - especially
when the job market is water tight and there is too much competition
around. Therefore , it is a wise idea to reconcile with the fact that
getting good education from an institute is different from getting
placement / assistance of placement and the two entities do not have to be
related to one another.